Galilee is a region located in northern Israel and southern Lebanon. Galilee traditionally refers to the mountainous part, divided into Upper Galilee and Lower Galilee.
Golan is the name of a biblical town later known from the works of Josephus and Eusebius. Archaeologists localize the biblical city of Golan at Sahm el-Jaulān, a Syrian village east of Wadi ar-Ruqqad in the Daraa Governorate, where early Byzantine ruins were found. Israeli historical geographer, Zev Vilnay, tentatively identified the town Golan with the Goblana (Gaulan) of the Talmud which he thought to be the ruin ej-Jelêbîne on the Wâdy Dabûra, near the Lake of Huleh, by way of a corruption of the site's original name.
Hippos or Sussita is an ancient city and archaeological site located on a hill 2 km east of the Sea of Galilee, attached by a topographical saddle to the western slopes of the Golan Heights.
Gamla, alt. sp. Gamala was an ancient Jewish city on the Golan Heights. It is believed to have been founded as a Seleucid fort during the Syrian Wars which was turned into a city under Hasmonean rule in 81 BCE. During the Great Revolt, it became an important stronghold for rebels and because of this Gamla is a symbol for the modern state of Israel and an important historical and archaeological site. It lies within the current Gamla nature reserve and is a prominent tourist attraction.
Geshur was a territory in the ancient Levant mentioned in the early books of the Hebrew Bible and possibly in several other ancient sources, located in the region of the modern-day Golan Heights. Some scholars suggest it was established as an independent city-state from the middle of the tenth century BCE, maintaining its autonomy for about a century until it was annexed in the third quarter of the ninth century by Hazael, the king of Aram-Damascus.
Hamat Gader is a hot springs site in the Yarmuk River valley, located in an area under Israeli control, near the Golan Heights and the border with Jordan.
Tourism in Israel is one of the country's major sources of income, with a record 4.55 million tourist arrivals in 2019. Tourism contributed NIS 20 billion to the Israeli economy in 2017, making it an all-time record. Israel offers a plethora of historical and religious sites, beach resorts, natural sites, archaeological tourism, heritage tourism, adventure tourism, and ecotourism. For practical reasons, this article also covers tourism in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the occupied Golan Heights, since it is closely interconnected with the mass tourism in Israel. Over the millennia the Holy Land has been amongst the most visited lands in the world.
The Heraklion Archaeological Museum is a museum located in Heraklion on Crete. It is one of the largest museums in Greece and the best in the world for Minoan art, as it contains by far the most important and complete collection of artefacts of the Minoan civilization of Crete. It is normally referred to scholarship in English as "AMH", a form still sometimes used by the museum in itself.
Rujm el-Hiri is an ancient megalith consisting of concentric circles of stone with a tumulus at center. It is located in the Israeli-occupied territories of the Golan Heights some 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) east of the coast of the Sea of Galilee, in the middle of a large plateau covered with hundreds of dolmens.
The Golan Heights, or simply the Golan, is a region in the Levant spanning about 1,800 km2 (690 sq mi). The region defined as the Golan Heights differs between disciplines: as a geological and biogeographical region, the term refers to a basaltic plateau bordered by the Yarmouk River in the south, the Sea of Galilee and Hula Valley in the west, the Anti-Lebanon with Mount Hermon in the north and Wadi Raqqad in the east. As a geopolitical region, it refers to the Syrian region occupied by Israel during the Six-Day War of 1967; the territory has been subject to a de facto Israeli annexation in 1981. This region includes the western two-thirds of the geological Golan Heights and the Israeli-occupied part of Mount Hermon.
Omrit, or Khirbat ‘Umayrī, is the site of an ancient Roman temple. It stands where the western slopes of the Golan Heights meet the Upper Jordan Valley, in the 1949 Israel–Syria demilitarised zone.
Fiq was a Syrian town in the Golan Heights that administratively belonged to Quneitra Governorate. It sat at an altitude of 349 meters (1,145 ft) and had a population of 2,800 in 1967. It was the administrative center of the Fiq District, the southern district of the Golan. Fiq was evacuated during and after the Six-Day War in June 1967. The Israeli settlement of Kibbutz Afik was built close by.
Yehudiya is an abandoned village and archeological site in the center of the Golan Heights, about 5 kilometers south of Katzrin within the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve.
Al-'Al, is a former Syrian village in the southern Golan Heights, on the southern tributary of Wadi es-Samekh. Israel occupied the area during the Six-Day War. The village was abandoned and dismantled.
Gamla nature reserve is a nature reserve and archaeological site located in the center of the Golan Heights, about 20 km south to the Israeli settlement of Katzrin. It adjoins the Yehudiya Forest Nature Reserve.
The Beit Netofa Valley is a valley in the Lower Galilee region of Israel, midway between Tiberias and Haifa. Covering 46 km2, it is the largest valley in the mountainous part of the Galilee and one of the largest in the southern Levant. The name Beit Netofa Valley first appears in the Mishna and later in medieval rabbinical literature, receiving its name from the Roman-era Jewish settlement of Beth Netofa which stood at its northeastern edge. The valley's Arabic name is Sahl ˀal-Baṭūf and as such appears as Vallée Battof in crusader documents.
Ancient synagogues in Palestine refers to synagogues and their remains in the Palestine region, built by the Jewish and Samaritan communities from the time of the Hasmonean dynasty during the Late Hellenistic period, to the Late Byzantine period.
El-Ahmediye also known as el-Hamediyeh or Ammudiya, is a former Syrian village in the central Golan Heights, 15 kilometers southeast of Lake Hula. It was populated during the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights during the 1967 Six-Day War. The village spread over two low-lying hills surrounded by springs. The Israeli settlement of Qatzrin was established two kilometres to the south. Al-Ahmadiyah's previous inhabitants had predominantly been Turkomans.
Ziyara is the Druze pilgrimage observed annually between 25 and 28 April at the Shrine of Shu'ayb, the shrine which Druzians believe contains the purported tomb of prophet Shu'ayb. It is officially recognized as a public holiday in Israel.
Katzrin is an Israeli settlement organized as a local council in the Golan Heights. Known as the "capital of the Golan", it is the second-largest locality there after Majdal Shams, and the largest Israeli settlement. In 2022 it had a population of 7,876. It is the seat of Golan Regional Council.
